Why Fund Raising?

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide with
a large majority (around 85%) of the global burden occurring in less developed
countries. There were an estimated 266,000 deaths from cervical cancer
worldwide in 2012. Almost nine out of ten (87%) of these cervical cancer deaths
occur in the less developed regions of the world.

The rate of invasive cervical cancer has dropped by more than 50% in
developed countries over the last few decades. It is now the twelfth most
common cancer in women in the UK and fourteenth in the USA. This decline in the
incidence of invasive cervical cancer as well as improvement in survival can be
attributed to regular screening of women with the Pap smear and the
availability of a vaccine in recent years.

The situation in developing countries such as India is different.
Cervical cancer is still the most common type of cancer and the leading
cause of death among genital cancers in rural India. The data that is available
in India is based on hospital based cancer registries - actual community data
about the incidence of cervical cancer is lacking. Availability of such
community level data would give an accurate idea of the magnitude of the
problem.

The realization that the majority of these cancer deaths can be
prevented by early diagnosis and implementing an effective screening program
prompted a group of committed people to set up the Mahati trust in October
2011. We, at Mahati trust, set out on a mission. We wanted to conduct a large
scale community level screening of women in the rural areas of Karnataka state
in South India. This would allow us to estimate the true incidence of cancer
cervix in rural Indian women and also to extend life-saving preventive and
early detection services.

We have worked incessantly in the villages of rural Karnataka
(Chikkaballapur District to be precise) over the past 6 years. We completed
screening in 5 PHCs (Muddenahalli, Nandi, Nayanahalli, Dibbur and Peresandra) and covered 259 villages,
have conducted 280 sceening camps so far, screening 19647 women,
collected 12450 pap smear samples; of these, 188 women tested pap test positive and were
subsequently directed to receive the appropriate treatment. Of these, 32 had
invasive cervical cancer. Even if 10 - 15% of the pap test women are turned positive for CA cervix, then the overall numbers will be alarmingly higher than the WHO estimates of 21.99 cases per 100000 women!

Having worked at the grassroot level, we now realize the possible
magnitude of the problem. We also have an idea of the hurdles that impede
provision of screening services and treatment. This makes us believe that we
need to double our efforts to keep the service going.

WHAT DO WE PLAN TO DO WITH THE FUNDS?

From the inception till now (6 years), we were systematically conducting
screening programs village by village in each PHC of Chikkaballapur district
and were able to only cover 5 PHCs as on December 2017. Chikkaballapur district
has 64 PHCs overall. In order to continue and increase the coverage of
screening, it’s necessary to have parallel programs and parallel teams
conducting the screening programs atleast twice a week. Mahati Trust is a self
funded trust and sustainability of these programs becomes next to impossible
without constant flow of funds.

The overall expenses include

- the transportation costs to travel to these PHCs which are approx 100
kms one way from Bangalore

A. A local coordinator is employed from Chikkaballapur and it is her
objective to give awareness door to door in the villages with the help of the
pamphlets we have created.

Q2. How often are these screening camps conducted?

A. Currently the camps are weekly (4/5 camps a month)

Q3. How are the positive cases identified?

A. The pap smear slides are sent to Cytology department at KIdwai Institute of Oncology,Bangalore. The cytologists read the pap smears and provide classification as normal and abnormal. (LSIL, HSIL, Carcenoma)

Q4. What happens to the women with positive report?

A. The women are brought to MS Ramaiah hospital, Bangalore for further evaluation and treatment at no cost.